Now that we are in the final month of campaigning, forget all the niceties.  The candidate trailing in the polls , McCain , ratchets up the personal attacks and the front-runner , Obama , tries to blunt them and counter-attack.  This morning, here in northern California, Sarah Palin assumed her role as "attack dog," declaring, "The heels are on, the gloves are off."  Thus we see the Republicans' effort to resurrect old charges (e.g., that Obama was friends with a Sixties radical, Bill Ayers), which Democrats may feel impelled to respond to by resurrecting McCain's even more ancient misstep as one of those implicated in the so-called "Keating Five" scandal.

What is the point of all this mudslinging and attempted character assassination?    Just as in the primary season, by the final weeks of the general election campaign, all the policy-related arguments have been advanced.  If your candidate is still trailing in the polls, chances are that simply repeating your policy positions will not make much difference.  You need either for your opponent to make a mistake (e.g., in a debate), or you need to attack his/her character.  Unless/until such tactics backfire in the coming weeks, they will be relentlessly pursued by the McCain camp in search of any possible advantage.  In this, the Republican National Committee (now McCain's principal fundraiser and message multiplier) is openly copying the same "hardball strategy" that Hillary Clinton used against Barack Obama.  Here's an except from the RNC's latest mass e-mailing (entitled, "Hillary's Secrets Can Defeat Obama, It Is Not Too Late"):

"If you look at Obama's record, you will understand just how dangerous this man is.

He even has terrorist friends he won't denounce. One such man is William Ayers, a leader in the radical terrorist group the Weatherman Underground. The group bombed several government buildings, including the Pentagon, killing civilians and police officers.

In 2001, Ayers said he had no regrets for his actions and wished he could have done more.

The ties between Obama and Ayers are tight. Both served on two non profit boards and they worked closely together. Ayers even hosted a political event at his home for Obama.

Obama has acknowledged he is a friend of Ayers and defends his association by saying he, Obama, was only 8 years old at the time of the Pentagon bombing.

However, Obama has no explanation as to why he is still a friend of Ayers.

Obama has even been endorsed by radicals such as Nation of Islam Leader Louis Farrakhan.

No one can deny hearing about Obama's relationship with the America-hating Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

There should be little doubt that William Ayers and Louis Farrakhan and the Rev. Jeremiah Wright are rooting for Obama ‚ because he is one of them.”

Notice the use of propagandistic techniques:  After "if you look at his record you will understand just how dangerous," the RNC ignores the "record" to recount Obama's "terrorist friends radicals[and] America-haters."  Obama is pronounced one of the notorious "them."  This slur makes no mention of Obama's criticism of Ayers, Farrakhan and Wright, while insinuating that there are even more "terrorist friends" that Obama "won't denounce."

Joe McCarthy would be proud.

You may wonder whether such scurrilous attacks have any impact.  As one of the journalists on Meet the Press said this morning, "The McCain campaign will consider it a victory that we are talking about Bill Ayers [in response to their attack]".

This is a cynical use of the news media's practice of repeating any charge a campaign produces , regardless of how transparently false the charge may be.

The other cynical use of the news media comes if they should refuse to spread the slander.  That gambit is called attacking the "mainstream media" for being "in the tank" for Obama.

Sort of makes you wonder whether such attacks will only push the media closer to the “tank,” if that is the only place where one can avoid the sleaze now covering the campaign trail.